Page 44 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Chapter 3. Ceramic Trade and the Musi Rive

(referred to as the Nanhai Trade) by a rapid increase in throughout Java. (The collection of Orsoy de Flines
the number of junks built at the principal Chinese ports became the basis of the ceramic collection in the
of Guangdong, Fujian and Zheijiang. This was facilitated Jakarta Museum.)
also by improvements in navigational techniques, such as
development of both the compass and the axial rudder. Yuan Dynasty (1280–1367)
Very significant also was the facilitation of commerce to The non-Chinese Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), which
their international trading ports by the development of followed the Song Dynasty, maintained the previous Song
some 50,000 kilometres of navigable waterways based on ceramic trade and production with few interruptions.
the Yangtze River, its tributaries and constructed canals. Information on the trade of ceramics to Indonesia
The ports of Guangzhou and Quanzhou were the during the Yuan Dynasty was provided by Miksic (2009).
principal Chinese ports during the Song Dynasty, with the He reported that in 1225 Zhao Rukuo wrote that Chinese
latter pre-eminently so. Such that by the early-14th century ceramics were exported to South Sumatra (Palembang?)
the Arab trader, Ibnu Battuta, considered Quanzhou to as well as North Vietnam, Cambodia northern Malay
be the largest port in the world with countless small junks Peninsula, Philippines, south India and Zanzibar. And
and hundreds of huge ships anchored there. Liebner that in 1349 Wang Dayuan wrote in his Descriptions of the
(2014) considered that much of the maritime trade Barbarians of the Isles that Chinese traders tailored this trade
during the peak of Sriwijaya power was controlled by to meet the tastes of particular communities. Some states,
monopolistic practises both by Sriwijaya and the port of such as east Java, wanted jars, vases and green porcelain
delivery. For example, he cites So’s translation (1998:299) but noted that Palembang ‘could only afford water jars
that ‘in recent years San-fo-ch’i (Sriwijaya) has established and pots, the same range of products as minor markets
monopoly in sandalwood. The ruler orders merchants to in Madura and Tanjungpura (southwestern Borneo)’.
sell it to him. The market value of the product increases While blue and white wares had become popular in
several times. The subjects of that country do not dare to China after 1352 and were exported widely, including
sell it privately. This is an effective way of governance.… to Java, no mention of them being sent to Sumatra or
The Chinese Maritime Trade Office at the port of call Palembang was noted. However, Manguin (1992) reported
would handle such goods [sent in Sriwiyanan ships] as a that Song–Yuan ceramics were excavated at the Lorong
government monopoly and purchase the entire shipment Jambu site. While those at the Museum Badaruddin in
after receiving a proportion of it as customs duty’. central Palembang in 1990 and 1991 resulted in 55,000
In Sumatra, Song wares were widely distributed artefacts weighing over 800 kilograms, 40% of which were
throughout coastal and inland areas. At Palembang, from the Sriwijaya period (18% were imported ceramics).
Song wares have been recovered from the 11th and 12th Miksic (2009) detailed recovery of some 80 kilograms
century. They include green, Qingbai and brown glazed of ceramics from burial sites in Pulau Tujuh, Riau
ceramics from Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang (Eka and Archipelago, Indonesia, by a joint academic team from
Putri Taim 1992). At Jambi, wares from Five Dynasties to Singapore and Indonesia. The vast majority of these were
the Yuan Dynasty period were widely distributed between 14th century Chinese green bowls with stamped designs
Muara Jambi and the sea (McKinnon 1992, Ridho 1992). on the interior, small saucers with raised double fish
In 2005 an archaeological survey of the lower Batang Hari motifs jarlets, white covered boxes, Marco Polo jarlets and
River Basin was conducted by a combined Singapore and spotted Qingbai jarlets. Under-glaze cobalt decoration was
Indonesian team. That survey, summarised in Miksic rare but present. Included also were coarse stoneware,
(2009), confirmed that Muara Jambi, at 1,100 hectares, brown glazed basins, jars and small jarlets. And items from
is the largest Song period site in the region of what was the southern Song (C13) and Vietnam and Thai artefacts
called the Kingdom of Malay. Archaeological excavations from the 15th century. Singapore was an important
at Kota Cina, near the mouth of the Deli River in north- island in the maritime trade of South East Asia up to the
eastern Sumatra, recovered tens of thousands of Chinese 15th century, after which it declined and was apparently
ceramic shards dated between 1080–1260 (Miksic 1979, uninhabited from 1600–1800. Of the imported ceramics
McKinnon 1984). And revealed it as the largest Song found at Trowulun from the Majapahit period 81% were
Dynasty port yet excavated in South East Asia. It lies Chinese, 17% from South East Asia (Vietnamese were
close to the Malayan port site of south Kedah which also four times as abundant as those from Thailand) and 2%
contains abundant Chinese trade ceramics dated from ‘others’ (mainly European).
Song, Yuan and Ming periods, as well as from Vietnam
and Thailand (Lamb 1961). Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)
Van Orsoy de Flines (1941–1947) documented Brown (2007), studying the cargoes of some 15 South
distribution of Song ceramics along the northern Javan East Asian shipwrecks, reported a reduction in foreign
coast (pesisir) and recorded them in abundance at trade of a broad range of Chinese ceramics between
more than 100 locations from Rembang to Blora and 1325–1380. Chinese blue and white porcelain, which
Kudus. (Tuban near Kudus was the major entry port totally dominated international trade in 1325, declined
for merchants trading with the Majapahit Kingdom by half between 1368 and 1430. However, some porcelain
in both east and Central Java.) From the coastal areas was sent to Palembang during this period as documented
ceramics were taken by an integrated trading network by Miksic (2009). He reported that archives from the

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